Storage racks for large units of material in crates or on pallets are well known and generally comprise a multiplicity of vertical posts interconnected by horizontal spacers and/or shelves. To facilitate handling of pallets by fork lift trucks, special storage racks have been proposed such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,502 granted to A. N. Konstant on Jan. 15, 1974. In the storage rack of this patent, the front posts terminate above the floor and diagonal members extend downwardly therefrom. Although this structure has proven advantageous in permitting ready access and minimizing fork lift truck damage, it provides unequal distribution of the vertical loads in this front section of the rack.
In storage racks horizontal members such as shelves are often permanently secured to posts, thus rendering assembly quite involved and disassembly difficult. However, horizontal members may also be detachably secured to posts by sleeves as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,087 granted to D. L. Weinbaum on Oct. 2, 1956. Although this unit has been employed satisfactorily for many years, there is a possibility that the sleeve sections may disengage if excessive upward forces are extended on the horizontal members during loading and unloading of the sleeves.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel storage rack assembly which is economical and easy to manufacture and has a substantially improved load bearing capacity.
It is also an object to provide such an assembly which is easily assembled from, and disassembled into, a plurality of planar vertical units and horizontal members.
Another object is to provide such an assembly which has an improved mounting clamp for detachably securing sleeves to posts to support the horizontal members thereon.